The Punjab and Haryana High Court has suspended the life imprisonment awarded to former Himachal Pradesh Inspector General of Police Zahur Haider Zaidi in connection with the 2017 custodial death of an accused in the Kotkhai gang rape and murder case, citing the absence of motive and the prolonged period of incarceration already undergone.
A Division Bench of Justices Anoop Chitkara and Sukhvinder Kaur on Tuesday ordered Zaidi’s release on bail, directing him to furnish a bond of Rs 25,000. The relief comes months after a special CBI court in Chandigarh, in January this year, sentenced Zaidi and seven other police personnel to life imprisonment over the custodial death of Suraj at the Kotkhai police station on July 18, 2017.
The case traces back to the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl from Kotkhai on July 4, 2017. Her body was recovered from the Halaila forests two days later, with the post-mortem confirming rape and murder. The incident sparked widespread public outrage across Himachal Pradesh, prompting the state government to constitute a special investigation team headed by Zaidi. Suraj was among six persons arrested by the SIT during the probe.
Suraj later died in police custody, leading to allegations of custodial torture and a separate investigation into his death. Following the incident, the then state government handed over both the rape-murder case and the custodial death probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The CBI subsequently arrested Zaidi and other officers, accusing them of criminal conspiracy, murder, fabrication and destruction of evidence, custodial torture to extract confessions, and preparation of false records.
While considering Zaidi’s plea seeking suspension of sentence, the High Court took note of his claim that he was not present at the police station when Suraj died. Zaidi told the court that he was on pre-sanctioned leave at the time to perform the last rites of his deceased father.
In its order, the court referred to the post-mortem findings and the alleged use of blunt objects, observing that such injuries point to “the usual brutal and crude methods of the police” during custodial torture. However, it held that Zaidi could not be attributed responsibility for injuries inflicted in his absence and found no apparent motive linking him directly to Suraj’s death.
The bench also examined the CBI’s conspiracy theory, which centered on a press conference addressed by Zaidi on July 13, 2017, where he claimed that the rape and murder case had been solved on the basis of scientific evidence. According to the CBI, a conspiracy was allegedly hatched thereafter to extract confessions to justify this claim. The court expressed skepticism over this narrative, noting that even extracted confessions could not be equated with scientific evidence.
Taking into account these prima facie observations and the fact that Zaidi has already spent more than five years in custody, the High Court held that he was entitled to suspension of sentence during the pendency of his appeal. It clarified that the observations were limited to deciding the suspension application and should not influence the final adjudication of the appeal.
In May 2019, the Supreme Court had transferred the custodial death case from Shimla to Chandigarh, where the CBI trial eventually led to the conviction of the accused police officials earlier this year.
